Kurds - Page 6

Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad commented personally on Turkey’s invasion of Syrian Kurdistan on Thursday, warning that his military “will respond and confront” Turkey’s “terrorism … in all its forms in any region of Syrian territory.”

Mitt Romney has been severely critical of Trump’s Syria policy. But in 2007, Romney had a somewhat different view of the Kurds.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), one of Congress’s most prominent non-interventionists, blocked a move on Thursday to bring a House-approved measure formally condemning President Donald Trump’s withdrawal of U.S. troops from northern Syria. 

Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Thursday in Ankara, Turkey, that the U.S. and Turkey had agreed to an immediate cease-fire in Syria that would allow Kurdish forces to withdraw from the border.

An Iraqi bishop says there is a “strong fear” among the people that the Islamic State may return thanks to the Turkish offensive against the Kurds in the north of Syria.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that he would not meet with visiting Vice President Mike Pence, but later in the day Erdogan’s office said he would meet with Pence on Thursday.

President Donald Trump penned an unusually blunt letter last Wednesday to Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, warning him not to kill Kurdish civilians.

During Wednesday’s broadcast of the Christian Broadcasting Network’s “The 700 Club,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he would become President Donald Trump’s “worst nightmare” if he allowed Turkey to continue its assault on the Kurds in Northern Syria.

War-torn Syria is one of the murkiest and bloodiest places on Earth. Little clarity could be found on the subject during Tuesday night’s Democrat presidential debate, during which the candidates energetically criticized President Donald Trump, but grew vague and evasive when asked to describe the situation in Syria or explain how they would handle it.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has overwhelmingly voted its bipartisan condemnation of President Donald Trump’s withdrawal of American forces from northern Syria.

President Donald Trump rebuked ABC News’ Jonathan Karl publicly during a press conference Wednesday for the network’s claim that footage from a Kentucky gun range was in fact footage of Turkey bombing Kurds in Syria.

A poll released Wednesday found that 57 percent of Republicans support President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria.

“If Turkey goes into Syria it is between Turkey and Syria,” Trump said. “It’s not our problem.”

Islamist Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan falsely claimed that Turkey had never “carried out any civilian massacres” in an attempt to assure the world that Ankara is not attempting ethnic cleansing against the Syrian Kurds on Wednesday.

The Kurdish news service Rudaw reported on Tuesday that elements of the Islamic State (ISIS) are taking advantage of Turkey’s invasion of Syria to increase the tempo of their own attacks on positions held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Warren accused President Trump of creating a “bigger than ever humanitarian crisis” for withdrawing American troops from Syria this week.

China’s Foreign Ministry called on Turkey on Tuesday to halt its invasion of Syria against Kurdish militias, urging Ankara to “come back to the right course.”

The Danish government has announced plans to revoke citizenship from those who have taken up arms and joined terrorist groups in the Middle East.

The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on Sunday reported large demonstrations in western Syria against both “Turkish aggression” and the continuing presence of U.S. troops on Syrian soil, a somewhat ironic set of positions given that the U.S. presence was supposedly the only thing preventing Turkish aggression until now.

President Donald Trump said he would issue an executive order imposing economic sanctions on Turkey after Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan invaded Syria last week to attack the Kurds.

The Kurdish city of Kobani, straddling the Turkey-Syria border, is preparing to welcome dictator Bashar al-Assad’s troops as part of an agreement between Ankara and Damascus, Kurdish authorities confirmed Sunday.

Kurdish news service Rudaw on Sunday quoted Kurdish veterans of World War II responding angrily to President Donald Trump’s comment last Wednesday that the Kurds “didn’t help us in the Second World War – they didn’t help us with Normandy, as an example.”

Left-wing pop icon Cher took her criticism of Republican lawmakers to another level on Monday, accusing the GOP, in a tweet dripping with falsehoods, of being accessories to President Donald Trump’s “genocide.” 

Kurdish officials in northeastern Syria said on Sunday that about 785 foreign prisoners linked to the Islamic State escaped from a “displacement camp” in Ain Issa after “mercenaries” attacked the area with “air cover from Turkish warplanes.”

President Donald Trump challenged Fox News host Brian Kilmeade on Monday for criticizing his foreign policy moves in Syria.

Ironically, when a diplomatic and political solution to the Kurds’ dilemma presented itself, few bothered to support it. Now that Turkey has crossed the border, many are reacting solely out of political concerns.

The mainstream media have begun to acknowledge that some Kurdish forces in the Turkey-Syria border region are a legitimate national security concern for Turkey, after a week of criticism of President Donald Trump’s withdrawal.

Pope Francis called attention to the plight of Syria Sunday, as a Turkey steps up its assault on Kurds in the northeast of the country.

Kurdish activists in France are protesting against the Turkish incursion into northern Syria across several French cities after tense scenes unfolded between Kurds and police in Paris.

Turkey is a legitimate nation-state with long-standing memberships in major international organizations like the U.N. and NATO. The Kurds are stateless actors, a large ethnic group broken into many factions and spread across several different countries. This is a very important factor in the conflict between Turkey and the Kurds. The world should address it by doing something that should have been done long ago: give the Kurds a state of their own.

“These wars, they never end,” Trump said. “And we have to bring our great soldiers back from the never-ending wars.”

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the semi-autonomous Kurdish provincial leadership in Iraq, expressed solidarity with the Syrian Kurds on Thursday, denounced Turkey’s invasion of northeastern Syria, and criticized the United States for failing to prevent the Turkish operation.

“The president is concerned about the ongoing military offensive and the potential targeting of civilians, civilian infrastructure, ethnic or religious minorities,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday.

Turkey’s invasion of northeastern Syria to drive the Kurds away from the Turkish border is bringing more Western attention to the Kurds than they received during the long and bloody Syrian civil war, where they played a key role in defeating the Islamic State. Here are some important things to know about the Kurds.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who has criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to pull U.S. troops out of northern Syrian because of its impact on the Kurds, reportedly privately undercut his own support for the ethnic group during what he believed was a phone call with the Turkish defense minister.

Russia will urge Kurdish authorities in northern Syria to open talks with Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Damascus, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday amid an ongoing Turkish invasion of Kurdish-controlled areas.